pozzy

English edit

Unclear, perhaps from a southern African language; from late 19thC, revived during World War I.

pozzy (uncountable)

(British, military slang) Jam (“fruit conserve made from fruit boiled with sugar”).
- 1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage, published 2014, page 136:
  ‘Could you pinch a tin of pozzy out of stores?’
- 1929 November, Robert Graves, chapter XVII, in Good-bye to All That: An Autobiography, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 237:
  The Turco used to say: 'Tommy, give Johnny pozzy,' and a tin of plum and apple jam used to be given him.

From position +‎ -y (“diminutive suffix”), with spelling shift; variant of possie.

pozzy (plural pozzies)

(Australia, New Zealand, military slang, Digger slang) A firing position.
- 1916, various ANZAC soldiers, The Anzac Book, page 10,
  […] and Jerry O′Dwyer had shot two crows from the new sniper′s pozzy down at the creek-—and so on.
- 1942, Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Volume III: The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1916, 13th(?) Edition, page 340,
  Brown himself, unaware even that there was an officer among his captives, picked up his rifle, went back to his “pozzy,” and dismissed the incident from his mind […]
- 1975, William D. Joynt, Saving the Channel Ports, 1918, page 84:
  They had also wonderful confidence in their leaders — they knew the best pozzy would be taken up.
(Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A position or place, especially one that is advantageous.
- 1971, Herman Charles Bosman, Cold Stone Jug, page 36:
  So I says to him, no, I can′t go back to the pozzy I′m sharing with Snowy Fisher and the late Pap.
- 2006, Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, page 62:
  Stretching his legs has been good for him, and this Pitt-street pozzy near the GPO is a splendid spot for a sandwich and a good book.